it never fails to amaze me the number of stupid people who slow down to take a look at the scene of an incident even on motorways almost causing and in some cases causing further incidents.
So that then accounts for traffic slowing down for the duration of the clean up after the crash and the police stood at the side of the carriageway waving the traffic on in an effort to get it moving again, I have been caught up in traffic like that on more than one occasion and it was literally people slowing down to take a look at the scene of a crash.That's a myth.
If you see a queue of cars ahead of you, do you slow down or plough into the back of it ? The same goes for everyone who has "slowed down to look at the accident" - they haven't. The only exception is the vehicle at the front of the queue in each lane - they will have braked involuntarily while the accident was happening in front of their eyes. As you or I would have done.
There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.So that then accounts for traffic slowing down for the duration of the clean up after the crash and the police stood at the side of the carriageway waving the traffic on in an effort to get it moving again, I have been caught up in traffic like that on more than one occasion and it was literally people slowing down to take a look at the scene of a crash.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/02/car-accidents-prevention
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/common-causes-of-car-accidents.html
Yes, that's why: traffic behaves like a bit like a gas below and a liquid above a certain density IIRC. Sadly, many people will happily ignore non-camera-controlled speed limits on motorways and large dual carriageways and happily chase up to the next congestion in a clear case of beggar-thy-neighbour.There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.
Huh? At first, their speed is limited by leaving a safe gap to the vehicles in front, then they let a silver car in. Also, they might be near the posted limit, so accelerating to pass might not be an option. Someone being overtaken is meant not to accelerate and obstruct it either... but in the vid, heavy traffic is travelling in lanes - why should the camera car drop back and so limit the road capacity further, just based on the small chance that the motorist on the left is incompetent and won't shoulder-check before moving right and they won't react to it quickly enough?It bloody annoys me when people do what the camera car was doing - sat just off the rear quarter hanging around the blind spot matching the speed of someone in the left hand lane. Pass or drop back, just make your mind up.
There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.